A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy

ISSN 1521-2300

The Manifesto Issue

12.3 Summer 2008

Logging On

Scott Lloyd Dewitt and Cheryl Ball, Guest Editors

The Manifesto IssueIf our scholarship seems too cutting-edge, too in-your-face, despite its having
been deeply considered, then it is reserved for discussing around conference-hotel
bars, on listservs and blogs, or over dinner and wine in the backyard patio.

Manifestos as ScholarshipWrought with connotation, politically and emotionally charged, manifestos
call us to action and demand change—in the streets, in the workplace, in our
classrooms, in our minds, and in the virtual spaces we inhabit.

Topoi

Catherine C. Braun and Kenneth L. Gilbert

“This Is Scholarship” is a movie that provides examples of different forms of scholarship that exist online, arguing that existing online scholarship is multiple and varied enough already that a more flexible definition of scholarship has emerged, even if it is not yet valued by many tenure-granting units. The movie further argues that these examples can guide tenure and promotion committees in creating new procedures for evaluating this new scholarship, and it offers suggestions for how to begin to build new values into tenure and promotion policies.

DigiRhet

We are a collective that believes that it is time for more of us in rhetoric and composition, and computers and writing specifically, to have a louder voice and a more persuasive say in the intellectual property debates going on in our culture and in our world.

Lis Lindeman and Gregory O. Smith

Friends and colleagues in literature programs often have assumptions and apprehensions about using digital media to teach traditional texts. These assumptions deal with (1) the status of the printed text, (2) the relationship between literature and composition, and (3) pedagogical concerns

Ted Remington

Just as greenhouse gasses added to the earth's atmosphere create unpleasant climate changes, my thesis here is that the addition of corporate money and influence in them media is creating unpleasant rhetorical changes in our public sphere's climate.

Spencer Schaffner

On September 12, 2007, a multi-part text titled the "Urban Literacy Center Manifesto" was found affixed to an abandoned city building. Through snapshots, text, audio, and video, this site attempts to preserve and contextualize the handwritten manifesto, seeing it as an attempt to transform passersby into advocates for literate activism.

Karl Stolley

Digital scholars in the loosely defined fields of rhetoric and composition, computers and writing, and technical communication should create free and open source artifacts that are software-and device-independent. Discourse posted on the open Web can hardly be considered free if access requires costly software or particular devices.

Robert Watkins

Students are exposed to multimedia daily, and to deny the argumentative powers involved in these newer media is cheating students. Embracing these art forms could spark interest in otherwise dormant writers. As composition teachers, our job is to teach argument(s) through texts. It is essential that we recognize all facets and genres that texts reach. Embracing multimedia may be the key to awakening the next generation of compositionists.

Kairos is a refereed open-access online journal exploring the intersections of rhetoric, technology, and pedagogy. The journal reaches a wide audience -- currently 45,000 readers per month, hailing from Ascension Island to Zimbabwe (and from every top-level domain country code in between); our international readership typically runs about 4,000 readers per month. Kairos publishes bi-annually, in August and January, with occasional special issues in May. Our current acceptance rate for published articles is approximately 10%.

Since its first issue in January of 1996, the mission of Kairos has been to publish scholarship that examines digital and multimodal composing practices, promoting work that enacts its scholarly argument through rhetorical and innovative uses of new media. Kairos is one of the leading peer-reviewed journals in English Studies, made so by its dedication to academic quality through the journal’s extensive peer-review and editorial production processes.

We publish "webtexts," which are texts authored specifically for publication on the World
Wide Web. Webtexts are scholarly examinations of topics related to technology in English Studies fields (e.g., rhetoric, composition, technical and professional communication, education, creative writing, language and literature) and related fields such as media studies, informatics, arts technology, and others. Besides scholarly webtexts, Kairos publishes teaching-with-technology narratives, reviews of print and digital media, extended interviews with leading scholars, interactive exchanges, "letters" to the editors, and news and announcements of interest.

Because questions of copyright, intellectual property, and fair use often arise for scholars who wish to create digital publications, we have developed a statement of copyright that encourages authors to carefully consider their rights and responsibilities while advocating for a strengthening of fair use. Our copyright statement also provides authors with the opportunity to build upon and republish their work because we are committed to the continuing development of intellectual work and believe that authors should retain the rights to scholarly production.

We invite you to share your views about Kairos, and we hope you'll consider submitting your work for our editorial review.